External Hard Drive - Lost data due to power outtage.

[besela909]

I have a 320 GB External HDD (western digital via USB connection and I have Windows XP media edition) it has been working fine until last week when my building lost power.  When the power was back on I tried to go into my external HDD and I had lost all my pictures and files.  I can see the folders but they display nothing and it says that the folders are empty.  I am not too sure what happened, I was not transferring any files at the time I lost power.  My drive was connected to my computer though. 
Also my computer can not detect the External drive at times unless I restart the computer. 
I also, checked my system management and the root USB hub is working fine, I turned the power off the right way and restarted my computer and that did not help.
I get a pop-up on the left bottom side of my screen saying that Microsoft can find any files on the drive and that data has been lost. I've downloaded different free software that can recovery lost data, but they could not detect my external hard drive.
I went into safe mode and I can see the files that I lost in the folders, so I thought maybe I could copy the files from there, but I get an error message stating that I can not copy the files due to the system not able to find the source for each file.
Can anyone provide addition trouble shooting steps; I have a lot of photos that I do not wish to loose.

Thanks

[Allan]

I'd start by running chkdsk /r on the external drive (if the drive letter is d: for example, the command would be chkdsk d: /r)

[besela909]

Thanks Allan.  I tried that and I received the following error message "cannot open volume

[besela909]

Please disregard the other post at 07:01:28 pm, i did not finish writing.

Thanks Allan.  I tried that and I received the following error message "cannot open volume for direct access".  I also notice that the the USB hub where my external hard drive is connected states that the driver is not working properly.  I downloaded the driver and still nothing has improved.   If i go into "my computer" i see the icon for the hard drive which is letter "E:".  when i click on the icon it comes up blank like it is empty, i then right clicked on it and selected properties and it states the following below:

type: local disk
file system: RAW
used space" 0 bytes
free space: 0 bytes
capacity 0 bytes


Also, when into CMD and i typed "CD /d e:" to see if i can access that drive and i get this message "the system cannot find the path specified".  Is there anything else that i can try? I've unplugged the power cord and the USB cable and reconnected them and nothing.

I am currently searching other sites and blogs and i found some suggesting going back into Safe mode and running the chkdsk e: /r.  What do you think?

Thanks again

[Computer_Commando]

Try this:  http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

[Geek-9pm]

What is make and model of your Extremal HDD?
Is it still under warranty? Where did yhou buy it?
What do you mean USB Hub?
Did the documentation say it is OK to use a hub?

EDIT:Hundreds of users are making comments like this one:

This problem only happens when the drive is connected through the hub, it's completely fine when connected straight to the computer. Obviously, this poses a problem for future USB expansion,

That was a Mac Book and a Belkin Hub and a Western Digital external. All good stuff, but they do not work good together.

[rthompson80819]

Another reason to get a UPS.  Besides battery back up they usually have very good surge protection.

I've recommended UPS units so often I think APC owes me a commission.

But I have had a UPS for years in a high lightning area and an area of frequent power outages and it has saved my computer many, many times.

[besela909]

What is make and model of your Extremal HDD?
Is it still under warranty? Where did yhou buy it?
What do you mean USB Hub?
Did the documentation say it is OK to use a hub?

EDIT:Hundreds of users are making comments like this one:That was a Mac Book and a Belkin Hub and a Western Digital external. All good stuff, but they do not work good together.

Geek-9pm,

I connected my External Hard drive directly to my computer.  My computer still could not recognize/detect the drive.  The Drive is not under warranty, that finished two years ago.  the Drive is about 3 1/2 yrs old.  The drive is WD3200D032.  And i bought it at Circuit city.



Thanks

[besela909]

Try this:  http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

Computer_Commando,

I downloaded and i ran the software, at first it did not find the external drive, i refreshed the search and it found the drive, i ran it to do a full check.  the final results stated that the drive was okay, but when i tried to look in the drive there was nothing.  i tried to scan the drive again with the software and it could not find the drive the second time.
 The software is a great tool, and i thank you for that, i just need to find ways to have the drive be detected without failing randomly.
The drive turns on with no trouble, for some reason the Driver that comes with it may have malfunctioned and now when i try to remove the driver and reinstall it, it still does not work.  What other ways can i try to get access to the drive?

[besela909]

Another reason to get a UPS.  Besides battery back up they usually have very good surge protection.

I've recommended UPS units so often I think APC owes me a commission.

But I have had a UPS for years in a high lightning area and an area of frequent power outages and it has saved my computer many, many times.

rthompson80819,

I agree, i will buy a UPS this week.  I do not want to go through this again, these files are very important to me. 

[Geek-9pm]

The external card disk drive is usually have a warranty for just one year. This does not mean that the drives themselves are necessarily weak or poorly made. For marketing reasons they have decided to limit the warranty to keep the price level down.
There is a possibility that what failed was the interface electronics. If so, you could carefully remove the hard drive from the external enclosure. It might be a standard IDE type connection and you would be able to put it in a standard desktop as the second drive or a slave drive. Then you could try the data recovery programming in and see what happens.

[besela909]

The external card disk drive is usually have a warranty for just one year. This does not mean that the drives themselves are necessarily weak or poorly made. For marketing reasons they have decided to limit the warranty to keep the price level down.
There is a possibility that what failed was the interface electronics. If so, you could carefully remove the hard drive from the external enclosure. It might be a standard IDE type connection and you would be able to put it in a standard desktop as the second drive or a slave drive. Then you could try the data recovery programming in and see what happens.

Geek-9pm,

I might just try that approach. 
One thing to mentioned i just connected my external Drive into another XP machine and it was able to load all of the drivers and files.  I can see all my data, i tested out one file by copying it over from the drive onto the desktop and it copied over just fine.  Then a few minutes later i was getting the same errors i ahd before, 1. when i click to open a file it says the name of the file not found, 2. I can see the drive in My Computer and i can click on it and see the data. 3. i ran CMD and tried chkdsk and that did not work.  4. i tried to go into the drive in CMD and typing CD /d E: and that DID work and i can see the data.  For some reason when i try to move the data or copy it i can not and the system gives me error messages about source not found.  Now that is odd, the good thing is that the data does not seem to be completely lost.  Just having trouble moving the data over.

If you have other thoughts please let me know.

Thanks

[Geek-9pm]

Your experience would suggest the problem is heat related.
Turn off every thing for an hour. Unplug the AC adapter.
Use a portable fan to improve air circulation.
Then try again to copy data as fast as you can
Do NOT use the move data command.
Copy files in blocks or  folders.
Avoid trying to copy too many at once.

[besela909]

Your experience would suggest the problem is heat related.
Turn off every thing for an hour. Unplug the AC adapter.
Use a portable fan to improve air circulation.
Then try again to copy data as fast as you can
Do NOT use the move data command.
Copy files in blocks or  folders.
Avoid trying to copy too many at once.

Geek-9pm,

IT makes a lot of sense, I will try it later today and see if it works.

Thanks again

[Computer_Commando]

...I downloaded and i ran the software, at first it did not find the external drive, i refreshed the search and it found the drive, i ran it to do a full check.  the final results stated that the drive was okay, but when i tried to look in the drive there was nothing.  i tried to scan the drive again with the software and it could not find the drive the second time.  The software is a great tool, and i thank you for that, i just need to find ways to have the drive be detected without failing randomly.  The drive turns on with no trouble, for some reason the Driver that comes with it may have malfunctioned and now when i try to remove the driver and reinstall it, it still does not work.  What other ways can i try to get access to the drive?

Your USB Drive:  http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=102&lang=en
What Driver are you referring to.  USB drives require no special drivers in WinXP.
Looks as if you're not the only user with problems: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1708&p_sid=MuM5AX1k&p_lva=1416&p_cats=185&p_cv=1.185&p_pv=3.210&p_prods=288%2C321%2C210